Theft probe at St. Mary Hospital

From The Jersey Journal. No wonder it was a money-losing operation! I only wonder who the beneficiaries of these bogus checks were!

HOBOKEN — An investigation has been launched at St. Mary Hospital to determine whether hundreds of thousands of dollars in bogus paychecks were issued out of the payroll department, according to several sources familiar with the investigation.

The internal investigation by the hospital’s owner, Bon Secours, officially began Thursday when armed guards hired by Bon Secours stormed the facility to secure computers and change the locks on a number of doors, according to several sources.

Several administrative employees from a number of departments were then barred from the hospital, according to hospital spokeswoman Joan Quigley, who is also an assemblywoman representing Jersey City.

The investigation comes as the city of Hoboken is preparing to ink a deal that would give it control of the beleaguered hospital, which nearly closed its doors after losing millions of dollars a month.

“I think what this shows is that the hospital has not been run as it should be,” said George Crimmins, interim executive director of the Hoboken Hospital Authority, which will run St. Mary. “We are now going over a lot of records, bills and receipts.”

It wasn’t a city review of hospital records that prompted the investigations but a tip from a hospital employee, according to sources.

Officials offered few details about the allegations, but several sources said the amount of money allegedly stolen could be as low as $200,000 and as high as $1.25 million.

A spokeswoman for Maryland-based Bon Secours would only confirm that an internal investigation is underway, adding that the company contacted law enforcement officials to notify them of the events.

Officials from the Hoboken police, the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office and the FBI all declined to say if their agencies were involved in an investigation but sources said law enforcement officials are awaiting the results of the Bon Secours inquiry.